Fantastic Four #9: The Humanity Of Benjamin J. Grimm 4

Fantastic Four #9, page 19, panel 3 and page 20, panels 1-4

Script: Stan Lee

Art: Jack Kirby

Inking: Dick Ayers

Lettering: Art Simek

Please forgive my poor attempts at collage today – this sequence spread over two pages and I couldn’t think of a better way to get the the whole progression onto the page.Ben and Namor slugging it out on the beaches of Los Angeles is one of the best fight sequences from the early issues of the book. Kirby really depicts the struggle, and there’s a superb splash panel of Ben dragging Namor across the sand as the storm gathers.

It’s the storm that triggers the latest transformation back to humanity. A lightning bolt strikes Ben, rendering him immobile and transforming him. Namor, realising that the previously even match has become one-sided, fells him with a punch.

This change lasts for just over two pages, although the reversion to The Thing occurs off-panel, and Ben’s briefly-regained humanity is not mentioned again in the issue.